LUSH Careers: Living the LUSH Life

Many of us long-term LUSH employees are asked how we got our dream job at LUSH. Often the answer is that they started their career at the "top" as a part-time employee during our busy holiday season. We call it the top, because these are our customer-facing employees in the retail stores, and our product-making wizards in the kitchen.

No one is more vital to the holiday experience at LUSH, and their experience in this role helps to inform the rest of their career with the company. I know it does mine, and I talked to several fellow LUSHies who felt the same way.

Take Karla and Yuliya from our manufacturing rooms in Vancouver and Toronto. Karla spent her first holiday at LUSH in a local store, selling our products to customers before applying for a position in Manufacturing the following year - that was 6 Christmases ago.

“Something that has followed me through Manufacturing is the question, ‘Would I buy this?’ Being handmade LUSH products maintain an element of uniqueness with every batch, but if I can honestly answer, ‘Yes, I would buy this product,’ then I know it has meet the quality that I was trained to sell to customers. “

Yuliya was hired 7 Christmases ago in the gift wrap room. As a Buyer, she says of her experience in Manufacturing: “Having an understanding of the processes and how our products are made has a huge impact on the decisions I now make related to what product to purchase, in what quantities and how well it will suits our needs.” Like Karla, she draws on her experience at the top to support the business from the bottom; keeping in mind the customer experience and the quality of the products as the end result.

While Karla knew she wanted LUSH to be her career from day one, Amanda and Emily from the training team had no idea.

Says Amanda, “I would have never guessed it to be in my future in the beginning of it all…During my time at the shop, I became utterly passionate about our brand, the products, the people who make up our company, and sharing all of this with anyone who would listen.” I guess that’s why, after five Christmases, Amanda is a national Retail Trainer!

What made them think of LUSH for a long-term career? For Emily, it was all about the ethics, “Honestly it's the non-animal testing policy. I count my lucky stars that I get to work for a company that is so adamant about this policy, and that animal welfare just isn't important to me, but all my coworkers as well!”

For Amanda and Yuliya, it was about the company environment, which they describe as friendly, inspirational and supportive, “I believe in putting all of yourself into what you do, no matter what you're doing, and this was being clearly exercised by everyone with whom I worked. The team was so invested in what they did and I couldn't imagine leaving.”

After ten Christmases with LUSH, I personally can’t imagine a group of people more invested in what they are doing every day and standing up for what they believe in an industry driven by only the bottom line. Whether it’s animal testing, sustainably-sourced ingredients, handmade products, or great customer service, in all our current roles we use the same education we acquired our first few months with the company. I still talk about our practices with the same enthusiasm I did as a holiday hire on the floor of the Santa Monica shop opening day, I didn’t have to learn that, I lived it.

That’s what makes our employees so amazing at what they do behind the scenes; they know LUSH from the front lines, and all the way through the business.